In this excerpt, Gill provides a brief history of Coward's inspiration for writing Hay Fever in addition to offering a positive appraisal of a 1985 revival of the play at the Music Box theatre.

Noël Coward's ' 'Hay Fever " has found a perfect home for itself at that exquisite toy of a theatre the Music Box (designed in 1921 for Irving Berlin and his partner, Sam H. Harris, by the celebrated theatre architect C. Howard Crane). Moreover, in Michael H. Yeargan the play has found the perfect designer for the setting that Coward called fora country house in Berkshire, not far from London and with a view, in fair weather, of the pleasing green valley of the Thames. Mr. Yeargan has provided an interior straight out of Voysey, with leaded-glass French doors opening onto a garden, an arts-and-crafts oak staircase, plenty of chintz-covered overstuffed furniture, and a...